


Winter days

by Nality



Series: Celesta. Short stories [1]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Established Relationship, Multi, Romance, Songfic, Xenophilia, a lot of OCs - Freeform, everyday sci-fi, fluff without a plot, winter romantization
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-02 01:14:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17878265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nality/pseuds/Nality
Summary: Small fluffy pieces about winter and my OCs. Can be read without main fic/s since they are not finished or translated. Some additional information about the characters and timeline can be found in the notes





	1. Snowman

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline - something around 2370. Location: Trill.
> 
> Anyway, it's nice to finally introduce my OCs! I'll be fast: Greg Keating is a Starfleet captain, Diane is his girlfriend, she is a historian and archaeologist. They're both human but Keating has grown up on Trill, this is his home. That's basically everything that you need to know about them before reading =)

Snow was creaking under his feet and fingers were numb from cold, but Keating stubbornly continued his work. He has been working for half an hour and finally, the result was beginning to delight him.

“What are you doing?”

The door slammed behind him and a stream of warm air with spicy smell burst from the house. Keating’s nose was cold but still could feel it. He turned to Diane, who was watching him with surprise and, maybe, a sign of alarm.

Probably it was worth to worry about him. He was knee-deep in snow. Only in a sweater and scarf, Keating was building a giant snowman much taller than him, made from three massive snowballs. The snow was falling in fluffy snowflakes and his strands of hair, covered with them and with frost, seemed completely white.

“Building a snowman,” Keating responded, joyfully throwing his hands in the air and showing his creation.

He already stuck two stick-hands into the ball in the middle, built its eyes from a pair of small stones and also intended to add antennas from the snow. For some reason, this snowman was Andorian in his imagination.

“You’re not a child anymore,” Diane signed but there was no judgement tone in her voice.

She never liked childishness and children’s games but something in this strange activity interested her.

“Exactly!” he exclaimed. “I would never make such an enormous snowman when I was a child,” Keating turned to her, smiling. “And who said that you can build snowmen only in the childhood?”

Diane waved her head vaguely but remained on a terrace, wrapping herself more tightly in a blanket. Perhaps, she imagined a romantic evening in Keating’s family house differently but she couldn’t find clear objections.

When he addressed her another sly look, she shook her head.

“Hey, no, don’t even think that I’ll join you,” she protested but Keating already knew she’ll give up. “I don’t even have warm gloves!”

“I’ll warm you up later,” he smirked and Diane gave him a jokingly reproachful look. “Or we’ll return to the house and we’ll warm up with mulled wine.”

Diane mumbled something in response but stepped forward, falling into the thick soft snow. She glanced at the snowman and approached him.

“I think he should have antennas,” Diane said thoughtfully, picking up a snowball. She has already forgotten about gloves.


	2. Ice-skating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jillian likes ice-skating and wants Nash to skate with her

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Timeline: 2369-2370. Location: some random planet in gamma-quadrant.
> 
> Few things need to be explained: 1) Jillian is a merchant (and a smuggler) who travelled through the wormhole soon after it was discovered and stayed in gamma-quadrant for a few years, working there. 2) Nash is her business partner (and something more). He is Aldonian which is a civilization which I created. So, totally non-canon but gamma-quadrant is big and there is a place for many cultures and species.
> 
> P.S. There are some tough sentence constructions here, so I probably messed up some of them. Help with mistakes is always appreciated!

“How do you call these weird shoes?” Nash is sitting in the snow, glaring at the blades, and is not so determined to get up. 

Jillian is near him. She is trying to stand and find a balance but it doesn’t work. She is waving her hands in the air and laughing because of her own movements. It is so genuine and contagious than Nash is smiling with her and almost forgetting that at some point he  _ needs _ to get up.

“Skates,” she answers and walks on a ground, remembering how to do that, and then carefully puts one blade on the thick ice of a frozen lake. It is blue and transparent but there is almost a meter between her and water. “I didn’t ice-skate for ages!”

Nash smirks and tries to stand but groans in surprise. It is much harder to keep a balance in these _skates_ than he thought. His figure rises above the ground more than for 2 meters without them and now he is even taller. But there is nothing from his usual dexterity and strength. Nash bites his tongue because he doesn’t want to groan again. This time there would be much more fear than surprise. Maybe Aldonians are not made for ice-skating! He thinks about this a lot but it won’t convince Jillian.

“Have you ever got an idea that I won’t be able to skate?” he asks, looking away from the ground that holds him, and finds Jillian who is already sliding smoothly on the ice surface.

“Computer says that you can,” she shouts to him from the middle of a lake. “And it replicated your skates specifically for your body structure.”

He is watching how she shrugs, pushes herself further, slides again and then… lifts one leg up. But she is not falling! Jillian is circling around her axis and then loses a balance for a moment. She freezes in the awkward pose, saving herself from falling, and laughs. Mostly, because she saw Nash’s face.

“Don’t do that again!” he exclaims, and she slides to the ice edge, as closer to him as she can. 

”But it’s fun!” she objects and gives him her hand. “Try it!”

Usually impulsive and courageous, Nash is struggling with a decision and maybe even is being afraid of the first step. Jillian is silent but she can see right through him, he is sure. “ _ Is that a panic in your eyes? The one, who is fighting a dozen mercenaries of Saitian syndicate at once, is afraid of ice-skating?”  _ He reads that in her eyes and her grin but she doesn’t say it. Probably, she is keeping all the best jokes for later, when he will fall.

But he takes her hand, stands on the ice and then takes her second palm. He needs support just to stand. Jillian groans from the weight but cheers him up with a glance and nods toward the ice.

“Let’s go. Lower your knees a bit. Yep. First, you push off with one foot, then with the other,” she teaches and he follows the instructions but it doesn’t go well. “Careful. Step by step.”

“I knew I’ll die long before my older years but like that?” he laughs nervously.

He didn’t even know that he is afraid to look weak in her eyes. This past year he was bragging about his strength or impenetrable bones, skinned with almost no nerve endings. He can endure pain easily. He can fight easily. He can do anything easily.  She is the one who is vulnerable. Nash can’t remember without a smile how she hisses when he treats her wounds, how her skin keeps all the marks from the shots. You can read the history of all her battles on it. He remembers how she breaths deeply and shudders from every movement when he kisses and holds his tongue over each of her scars.

Now _he_ is a vulnerable one. With all his strength he can’t find balance on the ice and he needs her thin hands and long fingers to hold on. Nash stares at her eyes and forgets ice-skating lessons. Jillian tries to catch him but he is too heavy for her, so they both fall on the ice.  It crunches under them but doesn’t break. Nash leans back against the cold surface and looks into the purple sky, wondering should he even get up. His long black braids wallow in the snow, acquiring grey tint, and heavy snowflakes settle on his fluffy eyelashes. It is not that cold and maybe better than falling again and again. 

“Are you hurt?” he asks carefully while Jillian grunts nearby.

“Something crunched but I’m fine,” she turns to Nash and then leans over him. Jillian kisses his rough, almost non-existent lips lightly and offers. “Attempt number two?”

“Can I lay down little more?” he asks and lifts his head from the ice, touching her forehead with his as if by chance.

She doesn’t know that it is Aldonian way of kissing but Nash won’t rely even on the smallest chance. It is better for her to think that he is clumsy and not too romantic.

“I won’t give up on you,” Jillian is stubborn. Who could have guessed it? “Get up!”

She pulls his hand but Nash doesn’t move. She cannot do that on the ground and, certainly, she won’t able to do it on ice. Nash sits by himself but pauses for a moment.

“You won’t give up, will you?” he asks, having another thing in mind.

They have never discussed their relationships. Are they actually together? How long will it last? Nash got used to people not staying into his life. Everyone is already scared by Aldonians but a loner Aldonian causes not only fear but suspicion. It is even worse. Jillian always justifies herself, saying that she is from another part of a galaxy and doesn’t get all local habits and worldviews. Her intonations are always convincing but she averts the gaze of her brown eyes when she is lying. And Nash can never catch it when they talk about it.

“I won’t give up,” she shakes her head stubbornly and kisses him again. In a human way but he even likes it.

“Then I’ll risk my life on this ice,” he nods and shakes snow from his hair.

It flies in all directions and Jillian tries to look irritated but she grabs his hand and helps to get up. Nash is still skating awfully but he is ready to fall again and again for her. Even with risk for his life.


End file.
